Spontaneous Vocabulary Practice

I'm not sure how it began. Suddenly we were spouting every word we could think of that started with the letter b: brains, bed, brix, blunderbuss, backwards, ballerina, bellicose, buffoon, bin, bobbin, birch...

I know some people play games in groups where they go around a circle with a poem that terminates with an opportunity to enter an adjective. If you can't come up with one in rhythm, you're out: "Schrodinger's cat is a __________ cat." Or, have you ever played Scattergories? Brilliant!

Reading good literature, I've been told, is one of the most effective ways of improving your vocabulary. And reading is fun, so it's a double win. One of the things I dislike about "educational games" is that the game itself rarely is actually, truly enjoyable. It's just slightly less wearisome than flat out repetition and memorization, so we put up with it. The simple ability to enjoy reveling in creative use of a skill? That I like much better.